The Adarsh Society scam is repulsive to the core because it demonstrates how little most people in power fear or even take environmental laws seriously.

The Adarsh Society scam is repulsive to the core because it demonstrates how little most people in power fear or even take environmental laws seriously.

Yet, it also poses a larger question about residential societies of the future. In city after city, builders are busy converting open spaces into flats.

India is urbanising so fast, by 2026, over half of us will live in cities. What will our environmental footprint be like? Shouldn’t any residential society have both environmental clearance and be incentivized to green itself?

It could work something like this: the next time a co-operative society builds homes, it has a menu of green options to chose from. These could include water harvesting, earthquake resistant buildings designing homes to require less cooling, heating and lighting, solar street lighting.

Some of them could be mandatory, such as water harvesting and building homes that guzzle less energy. The others could be optional, but set off with incentives. It could be one of many key strategies to create sustainable cities

Too Much Green? Ah! Diwali. The festival of lights. Or is it the festival of LED lights? One of the most remarkable shifts in consumption patterns this Diwali in big cities is the prolific use of LED, considered an energy saver.

Not just that, but the tiny size that an LED can be compressed into has influenced design as well.

But just because LEDs are greener, should we envelope our homes in them? My sense is no, we should still be circumspect. If you want to use electric lights, go ahead, use these. But in moderation.